Illyria
The God-King of the Old Ones. Biography Illyria is one of the legendary Old Ones, an original pure demon who ruled most of the known world from territories of modern California. She was one of the most feared of all the Old Ones and ruled from her citidel (Vahla ha'nesh) in modern day Los Angeles. Origin of Illyria At the beginning of the world, when everything was dark, one of the first demons to come to life was Illium, a creature that soon established himself as a deadly and powerful warlord. He dominated many of those other early demons and established something resembling a very loose reign. One of them forged for him a gigantic hammer, inlaid with magic that enhanced his strength and caused earthquake-like tremors in whatever it struck. Little is known about that time in the world, even by Illyria herself, but Illium decided after a time that he was ready to mate and produce offspring. To this end, he chose Katrellenine, the daughter of his brother Brauron and sister Katapola, who was powerful in her way, but as a second-generation demon, could not hope to overpower him. (An interesting side note is that Brauron and Katapola's marriage was one of the most productive of the time, and though Katrellenine was the only one of their daughters to make so powerful a match, her sisters would produce descendants that would become legendary--the most notable of which were the three harpies of Greek mythology) Katrellenine carried Illyria for a full century, then died bearing him. Illium could not know it at the time, but Katrellenine's life force passed into and empowered his son (Illyria was male in its true form), giving him a strength that was unusual for one who was as far removed as he was from the original fires of creation. Rise of Illyria Illyria was raised exclusively by Illium, learning the arts of conquering and war, and developing a strong distaste for the way his father ran things. Illium was ruthless in conquering, but lax in his reign; under him, things were chaotic and disordered. There were no clear laws, no clear borders, and no reason for anyone to think that challenging Illium would have dire consequences. Illyria felt that ruling was not the time to relax and enjoy your success, rather the time that all of one's problems begin. It should be noted that Illium was not a tyrant; he was merely too lazy for Illyria's tases. Illyria began to overtake his father's kingdom slowly and subtly, at first by building alliances, then by gathering forces, and finally, by waging an all-out war. The battle did not last as long as anyone would've expected. Illium's forces had overnight become Illyria's forces. His allies were now his son's allies. Everywhere he could've initially turned to for support were now backing Illyria. Even his own brother and father-in-law, Brauron, had taken Illyria's side. When asked why, he was only able to say that he feared Illyria more than Illium. The conflict nearly over, Illyria had driven his father into hiding. Refusing to rest until he knew for certain his holdings were secure, he searched for Illium across the continent (at the time, there was only one), maiming and torturing as needed to get the answer as to his father's location. Finally, son confronted father, in a scene that most would describe as short. Few words were exchanged, and even fewer blows. Illyria destroyed Illium. However, as a gesture of respect, he allowed his father to be buried with the hammer, even though Illyria himself had often coveted it. Illium's entire kingdom and then some was now Illyria's, and the younger demon's reputation for ruthlessness to create order had become so widespread feared and beloved that Illyria was given a title that even his father had not attained: God-King. Illyria's Reign Now God-King of half of his kind, Illyria set out to claim the other half. He ruthlessly began conquering new territory, practically by the day, while he also set about deciding who he could trust to help him hold it and more importantly, to help him rule it. Illyria was not a fool. He knew he could not oversee every part of so vast a kingdom at once. Naming regional governors he could trust to rule as he saw fit without attempting to overthrow him proved to be the most difficult part of his reign, and the main reason that he eventually stopped his bloody conquering before he had taken over the entire world. Illyria reigned with an iron fist, tolerating no disloyalty, no disrespect and very little disagreement. Illyria had a very set viewpoint on how the world should be run, and it involved order and prosperity that his people could not have dreamed of under his father's reign. Few had problems with the prosperity. It was Illyria's narrow defintion of "order" that grated nerves. Still, no one challenged him; if they had tried, who could win? Decline of the Primordial Millenia had passed in the darkness. Under Illyria's rule, the demon population thrived, as he had intended, but the Powers That Be (who the Old Ones simply referred to as "The Creators") were discontent. The world did not fit their vision of how they had intended it when they built it. Darkness and destruction was all they had fostered, yet it was not what they'd planned. The solution, it seemed, would be to simply blank out what was on the world now and start over. Yet they had made the Old Ones too strong, too powerful, and too many. Not only that, but Illyria's reign had gone on too long, he was worshipped as a god; his subjects simply no longer respected the Powers. Most of the Old Ones would not go quietly simply because their Creators made them. And so, though they were loathe to do it, the Powers summoned Illyria to come to them, and made to him a proposition. He accepted. In exchange for destroying the strongest of the subjects Illyria had worked so hard to culminate and then allowing himself to be killed, he would be ensured a place when the world had to be emptied again. Illyria prepared for when that time would come by choosing the best of the best of his soldiers, allies and worshippers, and lodging them in his fortress, Vahla ha'nesh, and warning them of what was to come. Once they understood what had happened and what they were to do, they walled themselves inside. Then Illyria stepped out, and removed the temple completely from the timestream, rendering it completely intangible, until he could return to open the gateway and enter it. Thus began what would be referred to in their time as The Great Purge. Illyria rode out, challenged and then slaughtered the strongest of his subjects, rivals and allies alike, creating war and inciting open rebellion. The Powers could banish the weaker demons, but most of the Old Ones--those earliest creations--fell under Illyria's sword. Notable kills of his included his grandparents, Brauron and Katapola, and his brethren and sistern Chronos, Samaria, Zelalsen, Lillitu and Nox Noctis. The Fall of Illyria The war boiled to a head, with most of Illyria's kind destroyed. In that time, the Powers had stealthily created their weapon that would bring the beginning of the end: human beings. Illyria would later describe the first of the human race as it appeared in its single-celled form: "You were the muck at our feet. We called you the ooze that eats itself. You were pretty at night. You sparkled and you stank." In the time it took Illyria to slaughter most of the strongest of her kind, the human race began to evolve into its primitive, Neanderthal/Cro-magnon form, and formed tribes that feared and in some cases, worshipped many of the Old Ones that were alive at this time. They were primitive, but growing stronger with each passing year, and it was actually with their aid that the last worthy rival Illyria had, Thrace, finally brought him down. The two met on a field of battle, where humans clashed with the lesser Old Ones that were Illyria's small force--a force that could easily be moved into Hell by the Powers when the time came--while Thrace confronted his King. Little is known of this battle, what accounts still exist are fragmented and contradictory, but on this one part they all agree. Illyria, of course, had never told any of his subjects why he suddenly turned on them, and Thrace, who had been loyal, demanded to know: "We gave you everything. Why did you destroy us?" Illyria, supposedly because he did not wish to endanger his agreement with the Higher Powers, is said to have replied, "Because I am God-King, because I am the greatest of you and have outgrown you. Because I tire of ruling your world and bringing you order while I myself for centuries have never rested easy. Because the time has come for you to meet your end. Because I can." Illyria and Thrace mortally wounded each other in unison, and in unison died, while around them, the human race won the battle they were fighting against the remaining demons. Seizing the opportunity, the Powers That Be opened the gateway to the underworld they had built to keep the demons in, and the remaining survivors began to be sucked in. It was the last of these who accomplished the now legendary act of mixing his blood with one of the humans he'd fought, resulting in the creation of the first vampire. The bodies of the Old Ones Illyria had previously destroyed (or that had been destroyed on her behalf or even that had been destroyed in simple in-fighting, both before and since she was born) had all been gathered up and placed in stone sarcophagi. The same was done now for Thrace and Illyria both, the powers drained from all the many corpses and placed into gems that were attached to the lids of each sarcophagus. Then the armies of man bore each of these to a sacred cemetary, which grew bigger and bigger as more were brought forth, until it went all the way through the Earth (the bottom at that time was ocean floor, mere feet away from opening into the water). It was called the Deeper Well and a small army and a guardian were appointed to keep it safe. These changed over time, and the most recent was Drogyn the Battlebrand. Thus began Illyria's time asleep, lying in wait for the world to end. The First Wave Illyria knew nothing about what had happened in the intervening time between his fall and the year 2005, but it was early in that year that those events would effect him. It seemed that while he lay sleeping, the Creators had begun to fight amongst themselves, and some had gathered together and broken off from their family, forming a second group called the Fallen, which descended into the Hell where the living Old Ones and their descendants resided and began to rule it. One of these, called Entropy, had gotten irritated about Heaven alone knew what, and broke away from the second group and returned to the heavens he'd been tossed out of to seduce one of his former number. Entropy and the Higher Power birthed and were subsequently devoured by their seven offspring, who were called The Endless by the two groups they both knew only as family. The Endless waged war against both sides of their family across numerous dimensions, causing unbalances and upsets in all of them, before they set their sights on Earth and the weapon that lay there asleep. Illyria had been recruited by the Powers to kill the other Old Ones because they were too powerful and unpredictable for the Powers to control or destroy themselves. This drew the Endless to the Earth and the Deeper Well, and they summoned the Old Ones back into life, into human bodies. Illyria was risen into the body of an English boy, not far from where his sarcophagus lay in the Deeper Well. Though he would not discover it until later, he had not been brought back at his full strength--the Endless had drained what they had to of his power in order to make it possible for the human body to hold him--but even still, he was an incredible threat. All of the other Old Ones, rising around the globe into their own human shells, were. It was because of this that Angel and his comrades traveled the world, collecting each of the risen Old Ones and doing their collective best to convince them not to fight for the Endless. With immense difficulty, they succeeded. Though Angel and his friends would never know it, Illyria had chosen to side with them out of pure spite against the Endless. Illyria was not pleased to have been risen so far ahead of schedule, in a human body, with his powers reduced. Illyria was not part of the core group of Old Ones who worked with Angel and the rest during this conflict. He felt determined to be put back into his sarcophagus (suffocating as it was) to rise at the appropriate time, so he was more than content to allow the others to stand back and lead him. He fought the armies of the Endless while the aforementioned core group performed a ritual to banish the Endless from Earth forever. When one of them struck him down, Illyria did not even flinch from the pain of his second death, merely smiled as he began to retreat into his sarcophagus, drawn back into it by the powerful stones still attached to the lid, and rested easy in the knowledge that his true rebirth was well-planned. Illyria's rebirth Even the best laid plans have a way of not happening the way they're supposed to. In the centuries that they had lain in wait in Vahla ha'nesh, a few of Illyria's followers had grown restless and some had even begun to doubt that Illyria would ever return. Some of these returned themselves to the main timestream of their own volition, where they found that Illyria actually had human acolytes, worshipping in secret. It was a mark of how many generations had passed that the humans and demons who had once hated and feared one another now rejoiced in this common link and began to work together. Several more generations passed, and the role of the highest priest, called the Qwa'ha Xahn, passed to a female demon called Maline Ascar. Maline was married to a human lawyer (surprisingly, he was not an employee of Wolfram and Hart) and they produced a son, Vexsar Ascar. Vex, due in part to his half human heritage and also in part to a rebellious attitude, refused to join in his parents' worship of Illyria or the horrendous acts they committed in the name of that worship. When his parents began to globalize after something big happened (something they'd been VERY disappointed not to be part of--Vex never asked what), joining in their worship of Illyria with the Qwa'ha Xahns of other long-dead Old Ones, Vex finally had enough and departed for homeless life on the streets of Los Angeles instead. It was on these streets that he met a fifteen-year-old orphaned prostitute, Joy Bradley, who quickly befriended him and taught him the ins and outs of life on the streets of East End Los Angeles. Vex developed feelings for Joy, which, unbeknownst to him, were completely obvious to his parents, who were carefully observing his every move. They and the other Qwa'ha Xahns they had formed alliances with had pooled their prophecies together, and the resources in figuring out those prophecies' meanings, and it seemed, to them, that the time for the true rise of the masters they served had come. The coincidental factor of Vex's feelings for Joy was too big to be ignored. Maline chose her to be Illyria's shell. Joy, for her part, had liked Vex for a while, but in the wake of his growing madness and unrepdictable violence (the cause of which is still unknown), had moved in to the new headquarters of Angel Investigations and under their protection, developed feelings for Connor and started a relationship with him. It was during one of Angel Investigations' attempts to make Joy feel like a welcome part of the team that Maline, with some aid, made her move. Joy, Cordelia and Dauragon were lured into a jewelry store, where Joy was persuaded to try on an enormous gemstone necklace. The stones were stones carefully removed from the lid of Illyria's sarcophagus, and the moment they were placed around Joy's neck, the binding was activated, drawing Illyria into her body. Joy grew progrssively more and more ill and feeble as Illyria grew stronger, infecting the young girl's body like a common virus, assimilating her piece by piece and destroying what it would not need. Illyria, though unconscious of doing so, destroyed(in order) Joy's tonsils, appendix, spleen and her soul. Illyria awoke in Joy's body, at Connor's side. Though her powers were still the reduced version of themselves that they had become when the Endless resurrected her the year before, she was still able to sense currents of power and could see that Connor was what had been referred to in the prophecies of her time as "The Bringer of the End," (see Connor for more information) so she was pleased to see him at first. Once it was established, however, that he was not the Qwa'ha Xahn, she got impatient and left him behind. She grabbed Mr. Ascar, Maline's husband and Vex's father, and forced him to lead her to where Maline had her sarcophagus. Connor followed. Illyria used the sarcophagus to summon the armor she had worn in her true form, molding it to fit her new body. Connor then killed Maline in vengeance for arranging Joy's death. Illyria was undaunted at the death of her Qwa'ha Xahn (who in her opinion was unworthy, anyway, having "trapped (her) in this human child's body out of spite"), once she found out that she didn't need Maline to open the gateway to Vahla ha'nesh and bring it into the timestream. Illyria, with Connor following her, entered her temple, only to discover that her armies were now nothing but so much dust. She briefly collapsed in the wake of her grief, but only allowed herself a few moments to feel it before she returned to the world and left Vahla ha'nesh behind. Illyria was disturbed upon returning to Earth to discover that the other Old Ones were now rising all over Los Angeles. This was not a condition of her agreement with the Powers, that she'd have to fight the same war twice, and now with no army to serve her. She turned to Connor and told him they had to get ready for war. Connor didn't want to listen to her, at first, but in the end the two formed a reluctant alliance: Connor would help her kill the other Old Ones if she would not kill or perpetrate any violence against innocent people. This news was not well-received by Angel Investigations, but they had little choice in the matter. Connor'd already struck the bargain, and it soon became apparent that it was an alliance they needed. The rest of the Old Ones had no outside enemy to unify them this time, so they fought each other instead, each one wanting to take over the entire world and not caring whether or not any human beings got caught in the crossfire. Illyria led them to the Deeper Well and after the matter was explained to Drogyn the Battlebrand, he helped them plunder the graves of the Old Ones that still lay within their sarcophagi, having been forgotten by humans and demons alike so that they had no acolytes to resurrect them. They took several pieces of armor and weaponry. Illyria herself took her father's hammer. Category:Characters Category:Old Ones Category:Humans Category:Active Characters